Greencargo: self-loading muckspreader review

By: Jan Blomsma

Date: 23.06.2015

Self-loading, self-propelled muckspreader Greencargo is the brainchild of Belgian firm BEMAD. Check out this short review from Trekker Magazine in the Netherlands.

This is not the first in-house machine from BEMAD – an acronym for Bureau d`Étude Matériel Agricole Degroote’, or, in English, the office for the development and building of farm machinery. Owned by Alain Degroote, the firm is based in Nivelles, in the French speaking part of Belgium, and has earned itself a reputation for creating massive self-propelled beet loaders.

Indeed the initial design for the self-propelled muckspreader was inspired by the beet loaders, and it even used an elevator just as on the beet machines. This was later changed to the present auger type.

On this first generation Greencargo a 3.40m-wide auger gathers up the manure from the heap, although this will be chopped down to 3.00m on future versions, a concession made to meet road transport requirements. The current auger’s design has evolved from experimenting with different designs, the result being that the new version is said to now work well with muck containing longer straw. The loading auger handles around 100t/hr, while a second auger sits above the spreader body to distribute the material in the hopper.

The spreader part is a standard Tornado 3 7018/24BV from Joskin. This has a 20m3 load area and two vertical spreading beaters, which are 2.25m high, 1.01m in diametre and powered hydraulically. They have two moveable spreading vanes arranged down low.

The rear-tandem axle is booted with 650/65 R30.5 rubber, while the front axle gets 800/70 R38 tyres. Articulated steering helps to keep the outfit manoeuvrable, and it also has a steered rear axle to reduce damage to tyres and turf in the field.

The prototype is powered by a 450hp Scania V8, but production machines will be switching to a 13.5-litre Deere motor that can deliver 400-600hp. Belgian users are likely to prefer the change in engine as there is a better dealer network to support the DPS unit. The engine powers a number of pumps including a pair of Sauer Danfoss units that supply 100l/min to the driveline, one load-sensing pump with a max output of 100l/min and a pair of smaller control pumps.

Although the Greencargo may look quite refined at first glance, it is still a prototype. The cab was donated by a scrapped Deere combine and has been spruced up with two screens and a pair of joysticks. The ISObus-compatible Greenstar display is mounted in the roof and controls the machine using software that was developed by Joskin in conjunction with Müller Elektronik. The second terminal positioned on the armrest displays all of the engine and transmission functions, while the armrest-mounted joystick looks after all the driving controls; the separate Müller stick takes care of the loading process. The Greencargo is also going to get a Deere Universal Auto- Trac automatic steering system for spreading in the field.

And there’s still more to do. On the prototype, the weighing system hadn’t been finalised and the axle diffs didn’t lock, something needed on a machine operating in slippery conditions. Once these jobs are sorted, Alain Degroote will sit down and do the costings before deciding whether there’s a commercial future for a self-loading muckspreader.